Page 75 of First Date: Divorce
Then she realized.
He’d simply used accumulated information to further their goal of passing for an unhappy couple.He didn’t know he’d hit a bull’s-eye.
“Explain that, Eric,” Melody invited.
“She thinks she ruined her mother’s life by being born, that because of her, her mother eventually married a man that her mother doesn’t love.”
She hadn’t saidthat.Hadn’t even thought it that succinctly.
“That’s—”
“Just a minute, K.D.,” Melody said firmly.“Let’s pursue this.Eric, you don’t agree with what you believe K.D.feels?”
“No.I don’t.Her mom would never regret having K.D.She’d say that having a daughter hasmadeher life.As for her marriage, Janeece isn’t K.D.She married a man K.D.wouldn’t love.They have a marriage K.D.wouldn’t want.”
K.D.drew a breath to dispute him, but the counselor held up a hand, forestalling her, then asked Eric, “What about K.D.fearing she will become her mother?”
“If she has a child, she thinks she’ll be as trapped as she thinks her mother was — either in single motherhood or—” He met K.D.’s eyes.She had to admit he was selling this really well.“—a marriage she has never been sure she wanted.”
The counselor let silence follow that.As for K.D.… she had nothing to say.
Eric’s mouth twisted into a smile that make her chest hurt.
“I suppose,” he said, “the biggest surprise is that she said yes in the first place, considering her fears.”
“You were the one who steered your relationship toward marriage?”
“Pushed, not steered.”K.D.touched the rings on her left hand.
“Yeah, I pushed,” he agreed.“You could have said no.”
She opened her mouth, then closed it.
Melody turned to her.Sure,nowthe woman wanted her to talk.
“Why did you say yes, K.D.?”
The trouble in his eyes.
No, no.Because of the opportunity to advance her career.
She’d said yesdespitethe trouble in his eyes.His trouble wasn’t her trouble.
“His eyes,” she said at last.She sure couldn’t say any of the rest of it.
Melody nodded.“I can tell from your tone that you’re remembering all the reasons you said yes in addition to his eyes.And I think that’s a good point to stop this session.
“I want you to split up now.One to the garden, one for a massage or the hot tub.Then switch.During your time in the garden, I want each of you to write two lists.What attracted you to each other initially, then what made you want to get married.We’ll talk about those lists after lunch.”
CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN
Lunch was the first time they talked with any Marriage-Save couples other than Izzy and Orion.
Two couples were on the same program as them.One for a week.And the other two only for the weekend.Still more couples were on a slightly different schedule that would have them lunching later.
Orion and Izzy chatted with each other across their table with obvious comfort and pleasure.
The other five tables were ponds of misery, with the only conversations coming in stilted, staccato bursts.
